No Expectations, No Disappointments!

I just completed my 6th Sprint Triathlon.

I did tell myself that I wasn't going to be so competitive at this race.  For one, I've never done this course, and two sometimes I tend to be so competitive and have such high expectations for myself that I am not ever happy with my results.

I did that to myself at last years Tri for the Cure. Even though I beat my time (well by 1 second) I was not happy with that.  So I will continually work on being pleased with every outcome as long as I know that I have tried my hardest!

So I raced on Sunday with no expectations, and had the time of my life!

In life there are two sets of people (ah shoot, there are probably WAY more but I'm only going to reference these two).  First there are people who are always making excuses.  Too tired, too much to do, conditions are not perfect... you get the idea. 

Then there are people who won't let excuses stop them.  Those same people have the same bad days as the first group, the same amount of stuff to get done, the same non-perfect conditions.  It's just that they have told themselves from the beginning that they WILL do it.  They WILL succeed, no matter the cost. 

Conditions were far from perfect on Sunday.  Rain and cold do not make for an awesome race.  My bike squeaked the whole ride, and my back tire was getting flat (so a few bikers told me along the way).  The hills were hard... VERY hard.  But no excuses.  I trained, I raced and I'm proud of myself.  I did not beat any personal record.  In fact it will probably be the slowest tri I've ever done.  But I walked in with no expectations and I walk out with no disappointments!

So, I bet you are curious how I finished (or not!)  :)  For those of you who care, here it is.

198 Overall out of 260 - Eh, not that great!  But in my defense there were some really fast guys out there!
67th Female - That's a little better I guess!  Unless there were only 70 women!  hahaha!
11th Age group  - Darn 11th.  I seem to always come in 11th place!  Come on top 10!

Swim - 18:10 - For the life of me I can't beat 18 minutes! 
T1 - 3 minutes.  So I chose not to have help with my wet suit.  Mistake!  When in doubt, ask for help!  I could not get my wet suit off and it added a ton of time!
Bike - 1:04:55 - Almost embarrassed by this!  You can clearly tell what I spend the least amount of time on.  Now, it was uphill most of the way.  But I was hoping for closer to 45 min.  Oh well!
T2 - 0:54 - I had to take my jacket off so it added some time.
Run - 25:31 with a pace of 8:14.  I'm pretty happy with that!  Seeing as 3/4 of the first mile was all uphill.  My goal is to get in that 24 minute range someday!

While I may not even be close to being first, I sure do have the passion and the drive to do it.  I can't help but first thank my body for staying strong and allowing me to push it to the max all the time, and I thank the Lord for allowing me to do something I love so much.  I won't ever take it for granted!

Now enough dillydallying!  I have some hardcore training I need to be doing to be ready for my Olympic tri in 4 weeks!  This is where the passion and the drive come into play because I can't even tell you how nervous I am to do this! 

Stay Simply Healthy everyone!

My Journey to an Ironman

So, I'm doing my typical browsing on facebook and I click on a fitness link.

Looks interesting enough and I can't get enough of this kind of stuff.

I start reading and my heart starts pounding out of my chest.

No joke, but every time I read something like this I get excited and nervous and even tearful.  And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is something I HAVE to do.

An Ironman!

I have not always had this huge love for fitness, nor the desire to do triathlons.  It just started with 1 mile...

1 horrible mile I might add.

Thought I was going to throw up after that first mile.

Glad I didn't quit right then.  I would have missed this incredible journey of health and fitness that I have been on.

Then one day, after I went on a short run (I was still building my mileage at that point) I decided I felt good enough to go on a bike ride too. 

So I did.

That's when I got the crazy idea to do a Tri.  I'm not going to lie... There were a few people who laughed at me!

My first Tri was equally as awful as my first run.  I came down with some type of the flu the night before.  I ended up throwing up a few times and my fever broke sometime in the night.  I had trained so hard for this that there was no way I couldn't NOT complete it.  But I was a hot mess!

It's amazing what you can make your body do when you have the determination.  It was the worst/best race ever and I have done 4 more Tri's since that awful day (1 more will be added to that number in a couple weeks!)  :)

So while the Ironman is still years away (I'm hoping to do one in 2015!) I've decided I want to document my journey from Sprint Tri, to Olympic Tri, to Half Ironman and then on to the Ironman.

Sprint - .5 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run
Olympic - 1.5 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run
Half Ironman - 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run
Ironman - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run


This documented journey really is more for myself than anyone else.  To remember all the ups and downs (because there will be plenty of those).  But in the process I hope it helps and inspires you to dream big and go for those dreams!  Because every accomplishments starts with the decision to try!